The Judge by J. Fuego

Today Dojo, I have one from Famous Smoke Shop, a Pennsylvania tobacco retailer that’s gained notoriety nationally for its online retail business, as well as a number of exclusive cigar releases. The Judge, blended by Jesus Fuego, was released in late 2013. Produced in Honduras, the cigar is comprised of a Brazilian Mata Fina maduro wrapper and an undisclosed 4-nation filler blend. The Judge comes in 5 sizes and is economically priced from $4.20 – $6.00. The cigar I have for this review is the 5 X 50 Blind Justice.

I’ll tell you straight up, this cigar surprised me. Here’s how it went down…

Before I even removed the cigar from the cello I had already decided that I wasn’t going to like it. Once exposed, the cigar is a gnarly beast. The dark brown to oscuro-black, mottled wrapper is rustic to the eye as well as the touch. It showed a number of medium sized veins crossing a rock solid, lumpy and bumpy roll. A quick nose off the wrapper revealed… nothing at all; the foot, a little more, maybe a touch of chicken coop. I just shook my head and sighed, what did Master Sensei get me into this time? Bland transitioning to bland? Ending with some severe burn issue, and me, grumbling about how I just wasted an hour of my life that I’ll never get back?

Turns out, I never grumbled once. The Judge is a damn solid stick.

From the first puff the cigar impressed me. It started out immediately with hay and freshly worked leather. The retrohale was biting with nuances of dark roast coffee. The smoke volume was plentiful and the draw was light and easy, even though the pack was rock hard. Into the first half the cigar settled in at a manageable medium strength. The predominate flavor from end to end was an earthy, roasted almond, that was occasionally pushed into the background, early on, by a dark fruitiness (sort of along the lines of a plum flavor) – and later in the cigar by a bit of sweet milk chocolate. Throughout, the burn was ragged and blistered, but not once did it need a touch up. While I was considering the burn line, the oils coming out of the tobacco caught my attention. At one point, it was almost dripping from the cigar just in front of the ash. I can’t recall another cigar with that amount of oiliness.

The band, though quite bright and unusual, is very wide – an inch and a half or so, thus it came off around the mid-point of the smoke. Very soon after that, the strength spiked quite rapidly and pushed up to, and through the medium-full point. A few puffs past that, I began to think I may need to head to the kitchen to get a spoon of sugar, but the cigar did back off slightly toward the nub end, so the nicotine sweats (and me turning green) were averted.

Would I smoke this cigar again?

I would. I can’t say it will be one of those cigars I just can’t live without, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be ordering a few more soon.

There it is, Dojo Nation – a Famous Smoke Shop exclusive, The Judge by Jesus Fuego. Not an earth-shattering smoke, but rock solid, and at $70 for a box of 20 Blind Justice, it’s wallet friendly as well. Give them a shot! I think you’ll be happy you did.

And as always… Dojo mojo, ya’ll

Short Link: